Ask Auntie Alex- All your troubles solved with TEFL Part Four
Dear Auntie Alex
As a TEFL teacher, I like to feel I am doing my bit for international understanding every day. However, as my interest in issues of global poverty etc. grows, teaching a language starts to seem a bit trivial. Is it perhaps possible to use the techniques I have picked up as a language teacher in the fight against starvation in the third world?
Yours
Philosophical in Peking
Dear Philosophical
Although you are right that knowing the Present Perfect Continuous is not likely to help save anyone’s life, the ultimate solution to global poverty does indeed lie in a technique from the TEFL classroom.
In class, if we have some students who are stronger and some who are weaker we pair them up so the higher level ones can help the lower level ones. Take the world as our classroom, and by doing the same we can achieve the same thing. Each rich country takes on the responsibility of giving special help to one or more of the poorest countries. The people from this country who help with their money and their time can then take pride in their progress of ‘their’ developing country and even feel competitive against the development of other countries that are the responsibility of others.
Easy as organising pairwork, I think you’d agree.
Keep the questions coming, readers
ATB
Auntie Alex